From the cover:
"This wonderful anthology contains some of the nation's all-time favourite comic verse. From much-loved classics such as Lewis Caroll's curious 'Jabberwocky' to lesser-known and forgotten gems such as Gelett Burgess' 'The Purple Cow, Griff Rhys Jones takes us on a poetic tour of the witty, the nonsensical and the plain laugh-out-loud funny.

The selection brings together poets from every age and every walk of life, from Shakespeare to Victoria Wood and from Keats to Benjamin Zephaniah. There is Roald Dahl's cunning variation on 'Little Red Riding Hood', Spike Milligan's brilliantly ridiculous 'On the Ning Nang Nong' as well as several entries from the ever-elusive Anon, including the delightfully succinct 'Peas'.

Remembered, half-remembered, cherished or written on a tea towel, here are some of the riches that add up to the nation's favourite comic poems."

Two small examples, there are much longer poems in here as well.

'The Purple Cow'
By Gelett Burgess (1866-1951)

I never saw a Purple Cow
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one.


'Wishes of an elderly man, wished at a garden party, June 1914'
By Sir Walter Raleigh (1861-1922)

I wish I loved the Human Race;
I wish I loved its silly face;
I wish I loved the way it walks;
I wish I loved the way it talks;
And when I'm introduced to one
I wish I thought What Jolly Fun!


This is a ring book, who's reading:

-Rubberchicken
-boekenxnl
-Plinius
-Moem
-you?
-back home please.

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Aan Rubberchicken meegegeven, de ring is onderweg!

A nice little book full of sniggers to cheer up a sunday afternoon.

Vandaag in de post ontvangen. Dank je Rubberchicken voor het sturen terwijl je het zo druk hebt met de voorbereidingen voor Nieuw Zeeland. Dank je Phoenix-flight voor het ringen.
Dutchbrit is al in het boek begonnen.

just read through this and really enjoyed it. A lot of them made me laugh. I will PM the next one on the list and will post it as soon as I have the address. Thanks.

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Dit boek gaat morgen via de post naar de volgende lezer. Veel plezier. Het hele gezin heeft van dit boek genoten.

Ik zie zojuist dat er staat dat het naar Sri Lanka gaat, sorry het is gewoon een Bookcrosser in Nederland die dit boek kan verwachten.

gisteren in de post, dank je boekenxnl! Ik kan hiermee mijn verzameling gedichtjes die ik op les gebruik aan vullen. En er ondertussen zelf van genieten.

It took me some time as I kept forgetting to copy the poems I needed. And I was glad to find an old favourie again: Talking Turkeys.

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in the mail to Moem

Looks like jolly good fun.
I suspect Stoneshop may enjoy this, as well.
Thanks for making it into a ring, and thanks, Plinius, for mailing it to me.

After allowing ample time for potential new participants to come forward *cough* it's time for this book to go back home.
I enjoyed many of the poems in it, while some others left me cold; but with such a large and varied selection, that's not really a problem.

Below is, however, a poem that wasn't included, while I think it should have been.


THE FAT BUDGIE - John Lennon

I have a little budgie
He is my very pal
I take him walks in Britain
I hope I always shall.

I call my budgie Jeffrey
My grandads name's the same
I call him after grandad
Who had a feathered brain.

Some people don't like budgies
The little yellow brats
They eat them up for breakfast
Or give them to their cats.

My uncle ate a budgie
It was so fat and fair.
I cried and called him Ronnie
He didn't seem to care

Although his name was Arthur
It didn't mean a thing.
He went into a petshop
And ate up everything.

The doctors looked inside him,
To see what they could do,
But he had been too greedy
And died just like a zoo.

My Jeffrey chirps and twitters
When I walk into the room,
I make him scrambled egg on toast
And feed him with a spoon.

He sings like other budgies
But only when in trim
But most of all on Sunday
Thats when I plug him in.

He flies about the room sometimes
And sits upon my bed
And if he's really happy
He does it on my head.

He's on a diet now you know
From eating far too much
They say if he gets fatter
He'll have to wear a crutch.

It would be funny wouldn't it
A budgie on a stick
Imagine all the people
Laughing til they're sick.

So that's my budgie Jeffrey
Fat and yellow too
I love him more than daddie
And I'm only thirty-two.

En het boek is weer thuis! Bedankt voor het meelezen allemaal!